Norton Rose Fulbright’s global energy, infrastructure and resources practice recognized at IJGlobal Awards 2024

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised on numerous winning deals at the IJGlobal Awards 2024.

The awards celebrate infrastructure and energy achievements across the globe. Entrants are judged by an independent panel of industry experts.

The ceremonies are held in London, Dubai, New York, and Singapore throughout March and April 2025. Norton Rose Fulbright was ranked as a top five global project finance advisor by volume for the full year 2024, with deals valued at more than US$50.4 billion in aggregate (IJGlobal, Q1 2025).

This year’s winning deals included:

Europe and Africa

IJGlobal Geothermal Deal of the Year: Eavor Erdwaerme Geretsried Geothermal Plant

Led by: Dirk Trautmann, including Klaus Bader and Valerian von Richthofen

A cross-border team advised a consortium of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), ING Bank N.V. (ING) and Mizuho Bank, Ltd (Mizuho) on the financing of the innovative geothermal power and heating project Eavor-Loop Geretsried. The first commercial-scale Eavor-LoopTM is being built with the additional support of a 91.6 million euros grant from the EU Innovation Fund. The EIB loan comes with a guarantee by the European InvestEU-programme. The project is co-financed by JBIC, ING Bank N.V. ING and Mizuho and is insured by Japan's Export Credit Agency, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). It qualifies as a green loan in accordance with the Loan Market Association’s Green Loan Principles.

In contrast to conventional geothermal power or heating projects, the Eavor-LoopTM technology does not capture heat from subsurface water or steam reservoirs. Instead, the company drills deeply into the earth and harvests the heat directly from underground rocks by creating a kind of underground radiator.

IJGlobal Energy Transition Deal of the Year: Northern Endurance Partnership

Led by: Alistair Black and Charez Golvala

Advised Equinor on its participation in the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) carbon transportation & storage joint venture with bp and TotalEnergies. NEP is expected to commence construction in mid-2025. The project consists of a CO2 gathering network and onshore compression facilities, as well as a 145km offshore pipeline. It also includes subsea injection and monitoring facilities for the Endurance saline liquefier, which is located 1000m below the seabed. It is expected that the project will transport and store up to 4 million tons of capture carbon emissions initially, each year, and this could rise to an average of up to 23 million tons by 2035, with further expansion of the East Coast Cluster.

IJGlobal Power Deal of the Year: Net Zero Teesside

Led by: Alistair Black and Charez Golvala

As part of Norton Rose Fulbright’s work with Equinor it also advised the international energy company on its joint venture with bp to build Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power), the UK’s first gas-fired power plant with integrated carbon capture. NZT Power, located in Teesside and part of the East Coast Cluster, is a first-of-a-kind power plant with carbon capture which supports decarbonization ambitions across the UK, it will generate up to 725 MW of decarbonized power. The plant has the capacity to capture up to 2 million tons of CO2 per year.